


The Edge of Tonight

by Phia



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Reality, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 22:42:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5309789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phia/pseuds/Phia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin receives a call from someone who was trying to call a suicide hotline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Edge of Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt inspiration: http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/134118505456/

Sousuke had gone to sleep over someone else’s dorm, leaving Rin alone to sleep in their shared room from Friday to Saturday. He didn’t mind that, but he did mind being woken up at 1 AM by the ringing of his cellphone.

He fumbles for it, hands tangled in his blankets. No one calls him at this hour unless it’s an emergency.

By the time it’s in his hands and on its last ring, he doesn’t reflect on the fact that the number isn’t saved in his phone. “Hello?”

There’s a silence, but then it’s filled with heavy breathing. “Is this a prank?" Rin says, scratching fingers through his hair. "Because -”

“No,” the voice over the phone says. It’s a guy’s voice, low and a little cold. Rin holds the phone between his ear and shoulder as he sits up in his bed. “Is this Skyline?”

“Skyline?”

“The suicide - suicide hotline. Never mind, you’re not-”

“Wait.” He grasps his phone in his hand, his fingers clenching around it. This hadn’t been the first time that someone misdialed and ended up calling him instead of the suicide hotline for teenagers. But this was the first time that someone called him at such a late time of night.

“Skyline isn’t - their call centers aren’t open this late. I’m sorry.”

There’s a shaky exhale into the phone. Rin pictures another teenager, trying to gather himself. He's probably in the corner of his bedroom as moonlight streams through the window and illuminates his pale face. “It’s okay. Do you know another-”

“Call center? No,” Rin answers. He probably should’ve done research on this once he got his new phone. “No, I’m sorry-”

“It’s okay,” the person sighs. “I’ll just-”

“No!” Rin yelps. Wow, he’s actually glad that Sousuke not in the room with him. “No. Look, I don’t know you. But please, please don’t kill yourself.”

There’s a pause, and then - “You don’t know me. You even said that. So you can’t tell me what to do.”

Rin clutches the phone a little harder. “I know. I know, but - you _know_ that you shouldn’t kill yourself. You called Skyline to tell you to stop, right?”

The person’s breathing seems to be coming out a little shakier. “I-I can’t do this, I-”

“What’s wrong? If you tell me what’s wrong, then we can work this out together. We’ll go through this the best that we can.”

More quiet. Rin feels as if the person’s cold has seeped through his phone, flooded him. “I - I don’t know what to do about my - my future.”

“What do you want to do?”

The quickest answer that Rin has received all night: “I want to swim.”

Rin crosses his legs, gets a little more comfortable. “You swim? I swim too. My speciality is the butterfly, what’s yours?”

Possibly the quickest answer he’s received all night: “I swim free.”

“Nice. Maybe one day I could see you swim.”

The person on the other end shifts - Rin hears the creaking of floorboards. “Maybe.”

“Are you on a swim team?”

“Yes.”

“Me too.” And Rin nods, even though the boy can’t see him.

Surprisingly, the other boy tries to fill up the silence. “I’m not - I don’t think I’m really gonna kill myself. I don’t think I was going to.”

Rin wants to emit a sigh of relief, but the other swimmer will be able to hear him.

The boy keeps speaking. “I just wanted to call Skyline because I can’t talk to anyone else. I have friends but I don’t want to talk to them.”

“You don’t have a really close friend?” Rin asks.

The person sighs. “Makoto. But he tells me what to do. It makes me feel pressure.”

He starts speaking quickly, words skidding into each other. “I feel a lot of pressure from everyone. And they are always watching me - I just want to swim. I just want to go inside the water and stay there. I don’t care about winning.”

Rin almost rolls his eyes, something defensive surging up inside of him. “Winning is - winning is important. Well. At least, it is to me.”

“I know it’s important!” the other boy snaps. “That’s what’s important to my team and the scouts. But it’s not important to me. I just want to be in the water. The water is where I’m supposed to be.”

Rin feels like he’s reading the diary of a fish. “I can tell you like the water a lot.”

The other boy doesn’t answer him.

For the first time since the call’s started, Rin feels his eyelids drooping. But he _has_ to stay up. “I don’t want to stop talking to you until I’m sure that you won’t do it.”

“I won’t.”

Rin closes his eyes. This is a stranger over the line. “My father died,” he says, sounding like he’s reciting a tale he’s read a thousand times over. “I'm still trying to make him proud. But that's how I run _my_ future, trying my best at doing what I think would make my father proud. You can choose your own future, too. That's your future, and no one should tell you how to run it.”

When the boy speaks, it reminds Rin of stepping carefully throughout the dorm’s hallways, trying not to make much noise and wake everyone up. “I think your dad would’ve been proud of you.”

Rin lets out a little laugh. “You don’t know anything about him...”

The boy coughs. “But I know a little bit about you. You’re still up on this phone with me, even though you’re not Skyline.”

“I’m not. And I think I need to get a different number, because people keep calling me thinking-”

“Don’t be like that. Listen to what I’m telling you.”

Rin hisses, _Tch_ sounding through his teeth. “I’m listening.”

“He would be proud of you. And thank you. For staying up with me. But I have to swim tomorrow and I think I should sleep. Goodnight-”

“Wait!” This boy already has a hand on his emotional switch, bringing him over to anger in a second. “You can call me any time, you know that?”

A pause, and then the boy says “...Okay,” a little taken aback.

“Okay,” Rin repeats. “But I’ll add your number into my phone, just in case. What’s your name?”

“Haruka.”

Rin refrains from commenting on the fact that it is a girls’ name. “Okay. Goodnight, Haru.”

“Goodnight.” And then Haru ends the call. Rin saves the number and then lets the phone fall from his hand. He lays down and stares at the wall that his bed is pressed against. He falls asleep.

* * *

 

The next morning, Rin wakes again to chimes from his phone. He blinks and reads the text through bleary eyes.

**Haru:**

_Do you still want to see me swim?_

Rin smiles, and golden sunlight floods in through the windows, as if on cue.

**Rin:**

_Yes_.

 


End file.
